Kiku, Night's Flower Discussion

9 months ago

After watching your video and now looking at your decklist, there's one minor, but very important detail I think was missed. If you look at the rules regarding Xantcha on Gatherer, you'll see that if the person you gave Xantcha to dies, then she doesn't go to your command zone, she stays in play under her owner's control without changing zones. So the deck probably wants something more than Miren the Moaning Well to sacrifice her, or some other way to take her out.

A couple thoughts I had that fit perfectly: Bogardan Hellkite, has flash and deals exactly 5 damage, which can kill Xantcha and leave you with a nice sized creature. Kiku, Night's Flower can activate to kill Xantcha, but also can be used to kill other creatures in the mean time.

Also a potentially worthwhile card to help keep you on top while doing all the stacking minor damage to everyone is Vampiric Link. Considering Xantcha has to attack every turn anyway, you can put that aura on her to give her pseudo lifelink, however you'll still gain life from her dealing damage even while you don't control her.

1 year ago

Wow! Fascinating idea for a deck! Don't know your budget at all but here we go!

My suggestions: Neverending Torment is not a good win condition. I prevents only you from casting spells, meaning the other players will tutor up cards and beat you. I personally don't think you'll ever win a game this way.

BOOOOOOOOOOM. Necropotence has a huge down side that's MITIGATED BY YOUR COMMANDER. Think about it. Draw all your cards at the cost of you're life, your opponents are stuck with 3-4 and you have 20. You win by sheer card advantage.

Ad Nauseam is another way to get around the inability to draw. Very very strong.

There really is a ton going on with this deck, it kind of almost HAS to be played to see it all. Thinking of pulling the 7-8 mill effects though. It does play fairly defensively, but it's answers are usually to kill, exile, remove, or plain just give things Defender to just about anything..if I can get it moving fast enough.

AND, I just realized I should've put all this in the description, lol.

2 years ago

Ok, all. I am an idiot. I had a realization in play yesterday that should have been obvious, but I had missed it. Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim was meant to be both Rattle Snake and spot removal, but the deck was not built around it, so she never got going. I focused on the spot removal, and when she was removed from the deck, I replaced it with repeatable creature spot removal, thinking that would at least come close to replacing the value of Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim. What I didn't fully grasp was that the weakness of slow speed of the removal, along with the durability of the removal was the problem, and that Assassins would never be able to make up for this. I was sitting on one of the best removal spells that are available in Queen Marchesa's colors, and I recognized this at least enough to put it into a sideboard slot because I just couldn't cut it all the way. I think I should just put the good spot removal back in, and skip all this getting fancy with creatures for removal BS. Since my Rattle Snake and Pillow Fort defense is already very strong, I am not sure why I am worrying about it so much, especially since I keep strengthening it with the most subtle of subtle Pillow Fort cards like Duelist's Heritage, Slayers' Stronghold, and Key to the City.

Right now, I think I just need to consolidate what I think this deck does best, make sure that I bring enough of both the offense and defense that this deck works off of, ensure that I am optimally countering common deck archetypes in ways that are synergistic with the rest of the deck, and not get distracted with complicated additions.

With that said, I have a sideboard that I have constructed of cards that are meant for tuning this more specifically to different metas, and for including cards for combating common archetypes that my meta does not contain. Even if I don't use this as a common sideboard between games, this is my list of cards to adjust for changing metas as I go between them, likely usually between sessions.

Changes that I plan:

Main Deck changes should be to consolidate the theme of the deck, removing weakness in favor of the strengths.

Out:

Kiku, Night's Flower, Royal Assassin. I love the art on Kiku, but she was a distraction. Neither will be the bomb that I want, neither is subtle enough for a non-bomb card.

Utter End - One of the best spot removal spells available. Control is one of the things this deck does best, especially surgical removal. Consolidate around the deck's strengths.

Sideboard changes should compensate for different metas and allow me to combat the weaknesses in the deck with respect to commonly played archetypes that are just not that common in my usual meta. I am OK with unfairly destroying decks in metas that are not my usual meta.

In: Rest in Peace - The best at what it does, kills a lot of combo, storm, spellslinger, value engines, reanimator, etc...

So, what does that leave us with?

Ramp and Fixing: Lots of Ramp and Fixing that is tuned and synergistic with the rest of the deck, as well as a curve that allows us to bring out early big plays. Gift of Estates and Tithe double as card draw late game, and our unconventional manabase is highly synergistic with the rest of the deck.

Draw and Tutoring: Enough Draw and Tutoring to make the deck consistent and holding enough answers for every threat or weakness, without being obtrusive or conventional enough to be obvious about it. Three all star players in this list are Shred Memory, Key to the City, and Sea Gate Wreckage. Uncommon tutors and draw with huge impact in this deck without ringing any danger bells for most players. This suite makes my already versatile card list even more versatile.

Defense: A 25 card subtle and somewhat unconventional Pillow Fort and Rattle Snake defense with a low curve, the potential to be used offensively, and which is synergistic with itself as well as my offense. Back this up with a nice Fog suite, making my defensive wall extend into my hand so as to not have all of it sit on the battlefield to be effective, and bringing it's own offense in the right circumstances. Add to this a control package that is complete with a very strong and versatile spot removal suite, some reactive board wipes that have offensive uses, and multiple cards to allow us to protect our board state, including counterspells in Mardu colors!

Sideboard: Packed with Combo hate, a counterspell suite of my own for Counterspell and Blue Control hate, Graveyard Antics hate, and extra offense in the form of Dark Depths as an uncounterable big beater and Exsanguinate for big burn.

In all, I think I am pretty satisfied with where the deck now sits, and will likely consider this list to basically be the core deck. Testing will confirm, I think I have chased down all the areas that needed shored up, and I feel like this is, at the moment, a completed list.

2 years ago

After thinking about why Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim should have been good, and why she turned out to be less than I had hoped, I started to consider other cards for that spot. The problem was that she was rarely active, she advertised her value before she was able to fulfill her role, and she often just drew hate. She was an efficient deathtouch creature, but those are better when they are less obtrusive, so having a powerful ability that never got used just made her, and hence me, a bigger threat than she actually was. This was counter to the theme of the deck. She was fine, just not great, and despite all indications that she would fit nicely, she was antisynnergistic.

The most obvious alternatives would be other efficient deathtouch creatures. Since that was the role she actually fulfilled, I could easily find other deathtouch creatures to fill it. Rancid Rats actually works pretty well, same CMC, easier to cast, and skulk means that it can usually sneak in to steal The Monarch back if I lose it, or hit for a huge Hatred when I have the opportunity. Not bad. Fetid Imp brings flying, and can gain deathtouch for a . Malakir Familiar brings flying and an extra ability. Flying defense is nice in EDH. Pharika's Chosen, Ruthless Ripper, Typhoid Rats are all very efficient, but don't really bring much more than a Queen Marchesa token, and would potentially not bring enough value to the deck for the card slot. Any of these could probably replace Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim without affecting the performance of the deck, since her actual role only turned out to be a ground deathtouch creature that seemed more threatening than she actually was.

Finally, another direction I could go is assassins. Kiku, Night's Flower, Royal Assassin, and King's Assassin all threaten to kill any attacker, including evasive attackers, but they also threaten utility creatures that tap for value. The ability can be used politically, can be used either outside of combat or when I am not involved in combat, and it is active on the turn after they come into play. This can effectively perform exactly the same function that I hoped Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim would perform, but be active from the start, if slightly more limited in scope. I think the tap to destroy effect on each of these is slightly more powerful than block or be blocked to destroy ability of a deathtouch creature. The tradeoff is dropping a less subtle threat, which Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim also brought with her.

In the end, this is not an essential function, just a duplicate of functions the deck already performs. I can replace Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim with something that performs a similar function, or potentially go a different direction, without really changing deck performance much.

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